Chatwoot vs Session
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted chat & communication options
— licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one
replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Compare Chatwoot with
choose an app… Plane Focalboard Super Productivity Wekan UVdesk SimpleX Chat Etherpad OpenProject Habitica Self-Hosted Planka Leantime Centrifugo Screego Typebot git-bug Kanboard Berty Mumble Kaneo The Lounge GLPI Papercups Taskwarrior Zammad WorkAdventure Soketi Remark42 Isso FreeSWITCH qTox MiroTalk Ferdium FreeScout Telegram Bot API Server Rustpad Erxes osTicket Asterisk WeeChat Frappe Helpdesk Ergo Peppermint irssi Quicksy Bridge Kamailio Cusdis Libredesk Tox Stoat Helpy AnyCable Chitchatter Live Helper Chat Spacebar Nextcloud Talk Indico RetroShare SIPCAPTURE Homer Peer-calls mautrix-telegram Routr GlobaLeaks openSIPS mautrix Trudesk Databag Handesk Galène InspIRCd Candy Toxic Faveo Helpdesk Hyphanet Request Tracker FusionPBX OpenSupports soju KiwiIRC Glowing Bear Bonfire Pretalx Delta Chat Notifo Ticketit SimpleX Briar Quassel IRC OTS matrix-commander Mumble Web Comentario BitlBee Znuny ngIRCd Miaou Nextcloud Talk Signaling Server UnrealIRCd MiroTalk C2C matrix-appservice-irc Linphone Chatmail Relay Hookshot Atheme IRC Services Maunium Sticker Picker Spectrum 2 Shhh Gamja Jami Server Bridge Mollysocket Anope PushBits OTOBO Comm Tiledesk Heisenbridge Slixmpp Ferdium Server Solanum Wesh Network Draupnir baibot matrix-media-repo Charybdis IRCd Zusam Cactus Comments ircd-hybrid Scuttlebutt Room Robust IRC Flexisip FlowInquiry SAMA Biboumi Hebbot ircu2 Libervia Jami TicketsBot YunoHost Mail Relay 3CX ARN-Messager Freepbx GNUnet Groupboard MailBag Mailman3 Mailing List Manager Mlmmj Web Peachpub PrivMX WebMail SIP3 TrueConf Wazo Yeti-Switch
Compare Session with
choose an app… SimpleX Chat Etherpad Tinode Centrifugo Screego Typebot Berty Mumble ejabberd The Lounge Papercups qTox Synapse FluffyChat Quicksy Bridge MongooseIM Toxic Syphon Delta Chat Element X Briar mautrix-signal Chatmail Chatmail Relay SchildiChat Snikket Tigase XMPP Server Wesh Network Metronome IM Monocles Chat Prose
Feature Chatwoot Session Category Chat & Communication Chat & Communication License MIT GPL-3.0 Language Ruby TypeScript Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 2,048 MB 256 MB Deployment docker, kubernetes, bare-metal bare-metal, binary, source GitHub stars ★ 35,596 ★ 546 First released 2019 2020 Replaces Intercom, Zendesk, Drift Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram
Why pick each one
Choose Chatwoot if… Polished customer support workflow Active development Chatwoot details Choose Session if… Released under the GPL-3.0 license Written in TypeScript Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM Session details
Frequently asked questions Is Chatwoot or Session better? Neither is universally better. Chatwoot has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Chatwoot and Session free and open-source? Yes. Chatwoot is licensed under MIT and Session under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Chatwoot and Session with Docker? Chatwoot: yes. Session: check the project docs for container support.